Kyrill,
Some time back you asked about the DAKSA timeline.
You, and several others, particularly Mervin Beng in Singapore, Mal Fear in Sydney, Romeo Tiu in Brindisi, Steve Kessisoglu in New Jersey, and Peter Pesheck in Minnesota (to name just five, and there are others too numerous to mention here, forgive me.....) deserve an answer, so here it is......
Largely because I'm enthusiastic and love what I do, I've followed a policy of informing Aspen forum members of new projects, and anticipated delivery dates. This has the advantage of signalling new products, building anticipation, and hopefully setting up a new product launch for instant sales. And this has largely been true, as every time I've released a new product, AKSAphiles have stepped forward and bought kits immediately. In fact it is so successful that I sometimes wonder if I'll ever get out of the R&D cycle!!
However, this policy has come unstuck with the DAKSA. While the design has been tricky and long-winded (but achievable), the implementation is proving problematic. This is 1 mutha of a pcb, the size of an A4 sheet. Much of it is now complete, but integration remains the primary task, particularly power supplies and ground plane. But there are other problems of a strategic kind.
Both Ben and I are burning out. Ben is deeply involved in his PhD, which has reached a very difficult phase, and R&D is very costly, both in time and dollars. I'm now realizing that I must initiate a strong marketing push to sell my core products; the amplifiers in particular. To move forward, and bring the business to the next level, I need to sell at least five amplifiers each week; one per day, and since this is a thoroughly mature, time-proven product, I really should move as quickly as possible.
Ben and I somewhat reluctantly reached this decision this morning over breakfast. We will postpone release of the DAKSA until December this year, and proceed slowly at a less immoderate pace. It's for the good of the business, as right now R&D is unsustainable, and there is a need to consolidate. Consider the facts: Inventory will be around $AUD8K; documentation costs will be around $AUD2K, and significantly, service/backup, as with the GK1-R, is likely to be around 6 hours per sale since this will be a fairly complex piece of gear with many opportunities for creating faults during assembly.
We would expect about eight sales of DAKSAs in the first month, and perhaps four each month thereafter. These figures are deliberately modest. To recoup investment costs would therefore take around six months, and this is too much load in the short to medium term, since I must now build a large and quite expensive shed on my property to house the production side of the business.
So, accordingly, I have decided to postpone release until December. This is a difficult decision, but one forced by circumstance. I'm dragging the chain on the GK150 release at present - difficulties with cosmetics for the front panel - and this fully assembled, retail product must surely be my priority.
I'm very sorry to inform you all of this news; things are not in any way bad, and both of us are still smiling, but prudent decisions on R&D and project investment are fundamental to continuing survival, and pivotal to future prosperity. I personally don't feel I have a choice.
I must strongly express my gratitude for the huge support I daily receive from all AKSAphiles here present, and my hope for your continued support into the future.
In closing, my sincere thanks to Ben for his quick apprehension and his untiring efforts to support Aspen's product range. Bloody marvellous, Ben, thank you sincerely.....
Cheers,
Hugh
